In Memoriam Åsa Rosén

Professor Åsa Rosén, who worked at the Institute for Social Research (SOFI) from 1999 to 2016, has passed away at the age of 57.

Åsa Rosén studied economics at the London School of Economics in 1991 and joined the Swedish Institute for Social Research (SOFI) at Stockholm University in 1999, first as a research assistant, then as a lecturer at the institute's unit for undergraduate education. In 2009, she became professor in economics.

She worked with economic models which, in contrast to traditional economics, took into account costs for economic agents to find each other and agree on appropriate contracts. Her papers were published in the most prestigious journals of the discipline. Åsa Rosén's models were mathematical and often difficult for non-specialist economists, but the questions she studied were concrete and politically relevant. Her most cited papers are about which contracts provide the best incentives for workplace training and how increased competition can reduce discrimination in the labour market. She was also particularly interested in questions about differences between men and women in the labour market.

At SOFI, Åsa Rosén, in addition to her own research, worked as a teacher in undergraduate education, served as a mentor for younger researchers and was an active seminar participant who frequently contributed suggestions for improving empirical studies.